Using Google AdWords’ “Change History” Tool

Most good PPC marketers are constantly making changes to their campaigns: tweaking keywords, ad copy, landing pages, CPCs, and other adjustments, all to improve campaign performance. And most good PPC marketers will want to know whether the changes made any difference. This can be really easy or really hard to determine, depending on what changes you make and how you track results.

Google AdWords has a neat tool that makes it easy to see what changes you’ve made. It’s called the Change History tool. Found in the Tools menu within the AdWords interface, it lists all the changes made within an account in the past three months.

I’ve been using this tool more and more. I recently added a long list of keywords to one of my campaigns after review the Search Query report (see this post for more on that experience). I wanted to see how the new keywords were performing. Problem was, I couldn’t remember the exact date I’d made the changes. Then I remembered the Change History tool. Bingo – with just a few clicks, I was able to see the date, and then pull results for the campaign after the changes went in.

The Change History tool is also great for AdWords accounts with multiple users. If you’re in an agency setting, or even in-house with more than one person working on the account, this can create issues for even the best of communicators. I have someone helping me with product changes and updates – with large accounts, it’s almost impossible for one person to handle. The Change History tool will tell me not only what change was made, but who made it. No more “when/why/how did I do THAT?” questions!

If you’re not already using tThe AdWords Change History tool, give it a try. It makes it easy to track changes and the effect on your campaigns.